서강대학교

초록/요약

This thesis claims that Mary Shelley presents ecological concern through the apocalyptic narrative of The Last Man. While many critics have emphasized the political, gender, and psychoanalytic dimensions of the novel, I argue that the previous studies have not paid due attention to Lionel Verney’s close association with nature throughout his narrative. This thesis takes ecocritical approach to interpret the meaning of the plague that exterminates the entire human race, and examines why Lionel becomes the only one to survive from the global plague epidemic. Lionel, the shepherd boy of Cumberland, is estranged from nature by Adrian’s tutelage. His exposure to civilization leads him to see nature as an outlet to project the mind, and such vision is highlighted by Lord Raymond’s human-centered perspective in understanding the Other. Interpreting the plague as an ecological crisis caused by the Enlightenment ideals, Lionel’s eventual realization of the materiality of nature can be understood as Shelley’s own response to the Enlightenment thinkers’ reduction of nature as a sphere to aggrandize human subjectivity. In the rising crisis of the plague, the last man contemplates upon the meaning of dwelling upon the earth, which can be related to Martin Heidegger’s philosophy of dwelling. As the lone survivor of humankind, Lionel imagines an alternative mode to reconcile the damaged relationship between humanity and nature.